2002 German federal election

2002 German federal election

22 September 2002 (2002-09-22)
All 603 seats in the Bundestag 302 seats needed for a majority
Registered	61,432,868 1.1%
Turnout	48,582,761 (79.1%) 3.1 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Gerhard Schröder Edmund Stoiber Joschka Fischer Party SPD CDU/CSU Greens Leader since 12 March 1999 11 January 2002 Leader's seat Lower Saxony Bavaria Hesse Last election 298 seats, 40.9% 245 seats, 35.1% 47 seats, 6.7% Seats won 251 248 55 Seat change 47 3 8 Popular vote 18,488,668 18,482,641 4,110,355 Percentage 38.5% 38.5% 8.6% Swing 2.4% 3.3% 1.9%   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Guido Westerwelle Gabi Zimmer Party FDP PDS Leader since 4 May 2001 14 October 2000 Leader's seat North Rhine-Westphalia Last election 43 seats, 6.2% 36 seats, 5.1% Seats won 47 2 Seat change 4 34 Popular vote 3,538,815 1,916,702 Percentage 7.4% 4.0% Swing 1.1% 1.1%
Results by state for the second votes. Pink denotes states where the SPD won a plurality of votes; light blue denotes states where the CDU/CSU won a plurality of votes; darker blue denotes states where CDU/CSU won an absolute majority of votes.
Chancellor before election Gerhard Schröder SPD Elected Chancellor Gerhard Schröder SPD

The 2002 German federal election was held on 22 September 2002 to elect the members of the 15th Bundestag. Incumbent Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's centre-left "red-green" governing coalition retained a narrow majority, although the SPD retained their status as the largest party in the Bundestag.

Issues and campaign

Several issues dominated the campaign, with the opposition CDU/CSU attacking the government's performance on the economy which fell back into recession due to the Telecoms crash and the introduction of the euro, as well as campaigning on family values and against taxes (particularly on fuel). The SPD and Greens, on the other hand, were helped by broad support for its opposition to the Iraq War, continued media attention on the CDU funding scandal and by Gerhard Schröder's personal popularity relative to the opposition's candidate for Chancellor, CSU leader Edmund Stoiber.

Early in the campaign, Guido Westerwelle, leader of the Free Democrats, declared himself a "Chancellor Candidate," usually a title reserved for the main election leaders of the SPD and CDU/CSU. This was met with general derision.

Results

Although most opposition parties gained seats, and the result was in doubt for most of the election night, the governing coalition retained a narrow majority. In particular, the SPD was able to partially offset declines in their vote share in the West with an increase in the East, with the PDS falling below both the 5% threshold and the 3-seat threshold, either of which is required to qualify a party for top-up seats. Consequently, the PDS held only two directly-elected seats.

Seat results – SPD in red, Greens in green, PDS in purple, FDP in yellow, CDU/CSU in black

↓

251	55	248	47
SPD	Grüne	CDU/CSU	FDP

Popular Vote SPD   38.52% CDU/CSU   38.51% B'90/GRÜNE   8.56% FDP   7.37% PDS   3.99% Other   3.05%

Bundestag seats SPD   41.63% CDU/CSU   41.13% B'90/GRÜNE   9.12% FDP   7.79% PDS   0.33%

Post-election

The coalition between the SPD and the Greens continued in government with Gerhard Schröder as chancellor. However, due to the slim majority in the Bundestag, the governing coalition was not stable.

Further reading

• Pulzer, Peter (April 2003). "The devil they know: The German federal election of 2002". West European Politics. 26 (2): 153–164. doi:10.1080/01402380512331341151.

Sources

• The Federal Returning Officer
• Psephos